The Film Daily (1948)

Monday, August 9, 1948 DAILY Critics Discuss Video's Effect on Films I94S Forum Participants Sharply Divided on Whether Tele Will Help or Hurt (Continued from Page 1) other such, just as one can avoid so much that is trioe on the radio! „^ " HAROLD L. CAIL -^ig^ Evening ExpressPress Herald, Portland, Me. T)EOPLE will see the aniateter in TV. The skilled artist will generally be in the movies. The difference will be too great for TV to overcome as an entertainment competitor. For spot news the reverse is true. The damage to film will be in the news shorts. MAURICE C. TULL Kokomo Tribune, Kokomo, Ind. ♦ CMART, dignified advertising on television would help the movie industry— "Irailers" could be used to excellent advantage. Fashion tie-ins, "makeup" short subjects, could publicize the stars to perfection. TEE BROWN WBRC, Birmingham, Ala. ♦ "T^ELEVISION has a place of its own, just like baseball and basketball, out if there is a °ame on Friday night fjeople po to the movies on Thursday or Saturday. EVAREE WALTERS WCNB-WCNBFM, Connersville, Ind. I F ANYTHING, television will help rather than hurt the motion picture. Television will never have the scope of the motion picture. It will afford another opportunity for millions to become more acquainted with those in the movie industry. The radio helped the motion picture and television will do the same. JOHN T. ALLEN, JR. Cortland Standard, Cortland, N. Y. 'Y^l-EVISION will definitely be restricted to such an extent that Fantasy and Drama such as the average person desires can not be brought into the home. KAREN THOMAS Station WNBF, Binghamton, N. Y. ♦ 'J'HE YOUNGER set will still want a blacked-out place to hold hands while they see Gable and Hedy play romance. And the grownups will still want to get away from home and bury themselves in the make-believe of a good movie. DEWARD B. BRITTAIN The Evening Herald, Rock Hill, S. Car. I ♦ TT WILL build interest in the picture itself so that people will want to see the original when it apttears. ROY C. HURD Wilmington Sunday Star, Wilmington, Del. ♦ TF STUDIOS and exhibitors get in line with television — which is going to be a potent entertainment medium AS CANADIAN CRITICS SEE VIDEO 'WT/TH Canada looking forward to video early in 1949, Dominion motion picture critics, like their American contemporaries, are displaying a lively interest in the new medium. Here are the views on video's effect upon the motion picture and the film theater of three retyresentative Dominion reviewers queried by THE FILM DAILY: R. W. BALLANTYNE, the British Columbian, New Westminster, B. C: "I feel the moving picture industry will improve its technique to remain far enough ahead of television that the general public will still go to theaters to be entertained." RENAUDE LAPOINTE, Le Coleil, Quebec: "Television will hurt the box office, but it will force Hollywood to produce better films to lure the moviegoers out of their homes." LENORE CRAWFORD, Free Press, London, Ont.: "Since the television screen will be limited in size in a home, it cannot carry productions of motion picture scope and therefore cannot take its place. Radio has done the concert hall good. Television in the same manner may make motion pictures known to an audience not now reached." whether they like it or not — they could help it a lot, and television will help them. People who are paying now to see film fare would pay just as much to <:ee television shows on a nationwide basis. NORTON SPAYDE Amarillo Globe, News and Sunday NewsGlobe, Amarillo, Tex. ♦ IJAVE NO appreciable effect for some years; after that — who knows? Maybe Hollywood had better be figuring a good tie-in with the new industry. ANNE SMITH KSWO, Lawton, Okla. ♦ PRODUCERS will make better pictures. H. PAUL DRAHEIM Utica Daily Press and Observer-Dispatch , Herkimer, N. Y. ♦ T BELIEVE that a more personal view of the stars will create an even greater demand for them upon the screen, and increase their popularity. BYRON LEE McCALL KYCA, Prescott, Ariz. ♦ yELEVISION will aid the motion picture industry. Miniature performances, such as television will portray, will promote the performers and inspire the public to see them on the screen. Television will make people want to see movies, just like radio performances inspire the public to see radio stars in person. MARGUERITE HERCULES Courier-Times-Telegraph, Tyler, Tex. ♦ . "VV/HO WILL want to sit in a crowded theater when they can get virtually the same thing in the comfort of their home? ALAN B. HOUGHTON Beloit Daily Call, Beloit, Kan. ♦ TT WOULD appear that television will help the industry if anvthing "-ut it is mv belief that it will have no effect. People will see their favorite stars oerform on television for radio but they still want to see movies and features at their local theater. It may even bring the movies closer to their attention, and it certainly will help to bring non-moviegoers into the neighborhood theaters. RICHARD L. DAVIS Daily Times-Advocate, Escondido, Calif. ♦ ''TELEVISION will be a tremendous field for pictures to exploit — at a profit. WILLIAM J ADAMS, WHEL, Rochester, N. Y. ♦ IT'S OBVIOUS that when television is commercially accessible to theater goers, they'll be stay-at-homers for the same show. JIM PORTER The Daily Tribune, Gallipolis, O. ♦ T JNLESS THE movies improve, people will feel they can get just-asgood or better entertainment cheaper at home. MARJORIE PIERCE KLBM, La Grande, Ore. ♦ T TNTIL television climbs out of the toddler stage, it will have no more effect on theaters than radio did. JEANNE ROCKWELL Ann Arbor News, Ann Arbor, Mich. ♦ — TT WILL be a long time before television can reach the proficiency of the motion picture, technically at least. Even when this happens, it will only serve to make fans desire a look at a "big screen" and for this reason lure many people back to the theater who have grown out of the habit. STEVE PERKINS Austin American-Statesman ♦ TT SHOULD force producers to make better films — and let's hope it will! MAURICE BLAND Star-Ledger, Newark, N. J. ♦ '~VHE MOTION picture itself as part of American life wi'l coii'mue tn offer the same desirable features which even now contribute to iti success . , . a night out . . . pleasant surroundings, etc. . . . these things will not be replaced by television anymore than was the bkycle by the motor car . . . the public in other words will use both. HARRY C. HUNTER WMVG, Milledgeville, Ga. ♦ T BELIEVE it will have little efifect on the vast motion picture going audience away from the few large metropolitan areas. Tliey'll have inferior television reception and will continue to prefer entertainment away from home anyway. VIRGINIA COLWELL WLDS, Jacksonville, 111. ♦ f^ONTRARY to the opinions of some which I have read, I don't believe that television will have any effect on motion pictures. They will both prove to be related, yet separate, fields of entertainment. If anything, I believe television could be a help if motion picture companies, when the practicable moment arrives, use this means of communication for advertising purposes in a mantier similar to the "trailers" now shown on the screen week by week. THOMAS M. MALIA The Patriot Newspaper, Harrisburg, Pa. A/fANY persons, I find, already are rejecting a night at the movies in favor of remaining home with their television sets — and this when the programming is still exceptionally poor! PAUL KOSENE Perth Amboy Evening News, Perth Amboy, N. J. T SAY that Coast-to-Coast television will help motion pictures and the motion picture theaters. I believe that as radio and television have helped (in most cases) to create a bigger box office for sports events, so will good television shows create a bigger box ofhce for good movies WHEN THEY COME BACK! A. WAYNE BEAVERS KMA, Shenandoah, la. ♦ A/TIDDLE class of people which make up most of the per cent of theater-going public, will not be able to afford "TV for some time and the women will still insist upon an evening away from home. When the first thrill of TV wears off, theaters will still be "packing them in.'" JEANNE M. DORAN WMRO, Aurora, 111. TT DEPENDS on what the movies do. If they take over the television industry, they can dominate it. If they let others get the channels, the theater can he hurt. A lot depends also on how advertising is handled on any film stories televised. There are so many contingencies, it is difficult to say just what the result will be. HOWARD PEARSON The Desert News, Salt Lake City, Utah